Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	new_a	testament_n	4,597	5	8.1545	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36956	A vindication of Saint Ignatius (founder of the Society of Jesus) from phanaticism ; and of the Jesuites, from the calumnies laid to their charge in a late book, entitul'd, The enthusiasm of the Church of Rome by William Darrel ...	Darrell, William, 1651-1721.	1688 (1688)	Wing D270; ESTC R8705	31,024	53

such a Kindness would make the Reformers Consciences flie too often in their Faces for running from that Church whose Doctrine and Piety GOD so highly attested Now the Gentleman comes out with a shrewd Objection against all Miracles Have at the Jesuites The Temptation of lying and feigning Miracles for the Reputation of an Order is in that Church for more perswasive than the Evidence of Reason This is a Compliment borrow'd from the worthy Dean of St. Pauls But I challenge Him and You to produce one Jesuite or Catholick Divine who ever taught it lawful to lie for the Honour of their Order or on any Account whatever 'T is a Doctrine peculiar to the Leaders of the Church of England A Catalogue of Lies in a Protestant Pamphlet is no less connatural than a List of wonderful Cures to a Mountebank Look back on the Blessed Times of Titus Oats peruse those Satyrs vented from the Pulpits as Divine Oracles and then tell me Whether 't was possible to crowd more Lies in a Romantick Fable than the furious Divines of the Zealous Church of England marshall'd in their Sermons against the Papists They blew the Fire to such an Extremity that it almost reach'd their own Vicariges and the Desire to rout out the Papists by a Just Judgment of GOD flung them within an Inch of their own Ruin. The Justice of the Nation deluded by Fabulous Narratives and Malicious Sermons in Process of Time found out its Error and made a Satisfaction no less Authentick than the Fault But the Pulpit-Oats's could not stoop so low as to acknowledge their Crime which makes me think they thought it none to Lie and Calumniate for the Honour of their Church and the utter Disparagement of Ours And Reader to speak my Mind freely I am of Opinion That the Consult of Divines in Dr. Tenison's Library hath pitch'd upon the Method of Slandering as the best Preservative against Popery for had it not been a Resolve of a whole Cabal 't is hard to determine how all the Protestant Scriblers should unanimously stumple on the same Expedient Out of the former Antecedent my Author draws this Consequence When therefore Ignatius was to be promoted to the Dignity of a Saint his Disciples set their Inventions on the Rack to raise a Fund of Miracles What ever the Disciples of Ignatius did I am sure you have set your Brains on the Rack and Conscience to boot to find some plausible Grounds for denying them But all will not do your Work. You tell us indeed They were Feign'd without ground This is a groundless Assertion and of no Force with me till you propose some good Authority besides your Own. I grant indeed that Miracles may be easily obtruded upon the World after a long distance of Time and that nothing less than a strict Examination can defeat the Hopes of Impostors But I also contend that all the Miracles contain'd in the Bull of his Canonization have undergone this Test to the utmost Rigour And therefore I am oblig'd in reason rather to conclude That you are deceiv'd who Deny Them than those Judicious Persons who Approv'd Them. But here the Gentleman offers a very material Proof to the falsity of the Miracles ascrib'd to St. Ignatius Ribadeneira who was his familiar Companion in the Year 1572 first publish'd his Life and made along Apology in it in defence of Ignatius maintaining That it was no way derogatory to his Sanctity that he had perform'd no Miracles Afterwards in the Year 1610. publishing a Second Edition of his Life he was so far enlightned in this Matter that he giveth us a long Catalogue of the Miracles of Ignatius but withal confesseth That the Reason why he had not inserted them in the First Edition was Because they were not sufficiently certain and uncontested Because I have not the First Edition by me I will acquiesce to what the Gentleman says But What then Is it impossible that Matters of Fact which for want of Examination were doubtful in the Year 1572. upon an exact Trial afterward should be found true in 1610 According to this Rule a great part of your Canonical Scripture might be plac'd among the Apocrypha For you must grant me that most if not every Book of the New Testament was call'd in question immediately after the Decease of the Apostles and some not receiv'd till many Centuries after Now might not a Jew take up your Argument and oppose it to the Scripture just as you oppose it to Miracles It cannot be imagin'd how the genuine Writings of the Apostles who dy'd in the First Century should be unknown or at least uncertain when the Memory of them were yet fresh and after above an Hundred Years when the greatest Part of the Witnesses must be suppos'd to have been dead should be advanc'd to undoubted Certainty Wind your self out of this Labyrinth and I shall easily dis-engage my self from That you imagin to have cast me in I cannot pass on without one small Reflection on our Author's way of Arguing First He tells us That Papists esteem it a Virtue to lie for the Credit of an Order Secondly He advances a Step forward and tells us He has just Reason to suspect that they have put that Principle in practice by forging the greatest Part of the Miracles ascrib'd to St. Ignatius after his Death This he proves because Ribadeneira omitted to recount for want of sufficient Testimony those Miracles in his First Edition which he sets down in his Second Item Because Masseius leaves out many other wonderful Actions for that they are not sufficiently certain Now for my part I should draw a quite contrary Conclusion from the Cautiousness of these Two Writers viz. That they did not intend for the Honour of their Founder to impose on the Readers nor to augment their own Sins by increasing St. Ignatius's Miracles For let me tell you People of so loose Principles as the Jesuits pass for in your Judgment would never have minc'd the matter especially when a thousand Miracles would have much enhanc'd the Glory of their Saint and not added one Grain to their Labour Dear Sir I should be glad did you make use of the Cautiousness of the Two fore-mention'd Writers and lay no Crimes on Papists and Jesuites but those which were sufficiently certain and uncontested Your Auditors would leave their Pews more calmly and feel more Charity in their Breasts at the End of the Sermon and less Animosity against their Fellow-Subjects But a Calm and Serene Season is bad Weather for the Ministery to Fish in They delight in Storms and Tempests meerly out of Hopes that both will fall heavy on the Dissenters These Holy Conjurers raise the Wind in the Pulpits which soon breaks out of the Church-Door and spreads its self through the whole Town in a Trice All raise this Devil of Discord the same way And by good Fortune no Text is so remote which does not patly suit with the Incantation A good